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Comment by Reuven Cohn on December 15, 2009 at 10:16pm

re: Armenian genocide
As you may recall, I teach Modern Jewish history to tenth graders. I generally begin using the 'Holocaust and Human Behavior' resoource book at this time of year. Chapter 2 has a brief reading on the Armenian genocide. Severaal years ago, I asked Jan for the name of an appropriate documentary on this topic She recommended 'The Armeniian Genocide (2005, Two Cats Productions in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting).

Because the documentary is 1 hour long, in previous years I have devoted only one 45 minute period and we therefore did not watch the end of the documentary. It was one of those decisions that we must make as teachers all the time, limited time, so much to learn.

This year, for the first time, I decided to devote two full period to the documentary. In addition, because the students are learning about the Ottoman empire in their general history course, I was able to set the timeframe as happening in the course of the weakening of the Ottoman empire as it heads toward dissolution.

More important however was the fact that the last part of the documentary deals specifically with Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide. And generally, we had more time set aside for discussion.

What emerged in the classroom was a very powerful experience for all four sections that I teach. Students themselves in each of the sections expressed shock and something akin to indignation that they had never heard of the Armenian genocide before. For that alone, the time devoted was worthwhile.
Has anyone else had the experience of dealing with the Armenian genocide in the classroom?

Comment by Gabrielle TP on December 15, 2009 at 10:18pm

Thanks for posting this, Reuven!

Comment by Raquel Torenberg Edelson on December 16, 2009 at 7:18pm

Hi, actually, Gordis article came on the right (or very wrong) moment for the mexican jewish community. About two weeks ago, some students wanted to go to a friends bar mitzva wicht took place at tha Bet El temple (conservative): all of the students, including the bar mitzvah boy, go to Yavne school which has been, since it was foundes more than 60 years ago, modern orthodox, pluralistic and inclusive, and for many years, many of its students, where not even orthodox. But on this last ocassion, the high school principal and the school Rabbi, adviced the children, not to go to the bar mitzvah, not to go inside a conservative temple and to join the bar mitzvah boy only for the festive breakfast. They even sent the children, accompanied, by a teacher and waited outside the temple, in spite the fact, that they were invited to light a candle. This incident, of course has created a big scandal inside the community, so we started working with school principals and lay leaders on the concept of Jewsih people, belonging and tolerance. We want to start a program on these issues since it sence very very wrong messages to our young population. We are only starting so I will keep you posted. Jag Chanukka sameaj to you all,
Raquel

Comment by Michal Almalem on January 12, 2010 at 8:19pm

Shalom you'll. I just used the DVD we got from Shlomi about Idan Reichel and the Ethiopian Jews. My students read about the Ethiopian Jews in their Hebrew book. Then we had a class discussion about it. we brought questions like what does it mean to leave Ethiopia and walk 600 miles with your children in order to get to a land you have never been in. one student referred to the similarity to the years in the biblical desert with robbers around and hard conditions. Some had a video chat with an Israeli Ethiopian Jew who is also a comedian. One of his amazing comments about coming to Israel was the surprise there are white Jews. This was shocking for my Memphis Students that no need to say never seen a black Jew in their life. Today I showed the DVD “In Every Tongue”, the students loved it and asked to hear more of the music later. I connected it also to other two things I taught- the mitzvoth “Rodef Shalom” and “Ahavat Zion” as we were discussing ways to build bridges between cultures and to bring shalom in the sense of being peaceful and connected to myself, my family, my community and my people. Ahavat Zion is being performed here by both Idan and the Ethiopian community.
Todah Shlomi!!!

Comment by Michal Almalem on January 12, 2010 at 8:27pm

have you seen "A Hero in Heaven"?
what about "Every thing is Illuminated" ?
amazing resouces to teach about peoplehood.
I have work sheets ready to go if you need.

Comment by Sari Zack Weintraub on February 9, 2010 at 12:08am

I'm very interested to learn more about "In Every Tongue." How can I obtain a copy of this DVD?

Hope all is great with you, Michal!

Comment by Sari Zack Weintraub on February 9, 2010 at 12:17am

jewish_peoplehood_investigation.pdf

Attached is the assignment I gave to my students a few weeks ago in advance of the opening of the winter Olympics this Friday in Vancouver. I'm going to try to attach photos of them presenting their work tomorrow. Our summer discussions bore fruit; one of the kids said to me today, "I've loved finding out how we are connected to Jewish people everywhere!"

Comment by Gabrielle TP on February 9, 2010 at 4:57pm

Thank you for posting this, Sari!

Comment by Oren Neiman on December 15, 2010 at 4:23am

Thanks all for the good conversation last night. Here is my peoplehood lesson plan as it stands at the moment - input/comments/criticisms most welcome. As mentioned in the lesson this is one that should come in the middle of a Jewish Peoplehood curriculum and not as a stand alone lesson.Oren%27s%20peoplehood%20lesson.pdf

 

Thanks,

 

Oren

Comment by damian zoppo on December 16, 2010 at 8:44am

Shalom All

Attached are some pics of student work for the final project for my Jewish Peoplehood unit.  I have also attached the directions

Sincerely Damian poster.pdf

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